W6” x L6” x H6”
Copper
According to Finnish mythology, in the beginning, there was only air, a primeval sea, and a diving duck. The duck had been searching for a place to nest and eventually laid an egg. When the egg cracked, out of the top part emerged the sky, and the bottom shaped the land. Sometimes the egg broke into multiple pieces, creating the sun, moon, stars, and clouds.
The copper sphere opens up into two separate hemispheres, the heaven and the earth, and reveals the continuing folded pattern inside.
Hanna Ryynänen’s art grows from the background in jewelry, but she moves fluently between materials and different fields of visual art. Currently, working mainly with steel and other metals, she listens for life inside materials and lets them unravel through transformation. As a maker, she searches for vital signs within materials and processes, and creates objects and installations.
Through ancient materials, Ryynänen arranges thoughts about life and birth, about an ultimate coincidence. She depicts time, growth, and change and reaches towards the qualities some of life’s major unanswered questions evoke. She thinks about countless possibilities of existing and what it means to be alive, as these questions remain forever enigmatic and unanswered, stirring our minds. The artist believes in beauty of mystery, where there still is room for imagination to grow.
Hanna Ryynänen is a visual artist and jeweler from Lappeenranta, Finland. She majored in jewelry art and graduated from Saimaa University of Applied Sciences in 2016. Since then, her works have traveled internationally in renowned exhibitions such as METALLOphone in Lithuania, KORU-triennials in Finland, Northern Light in The Netherlands, and Talente in Germany. Her pieces can also be found in the collections of The Finnish State Art Commission and Kuopio Art Museum.
At the moment, Ryynänen is studying for her master’s degree at Cranbrook Academy of Art in the Metalsmithing Department, 2024.
